County struggling to meet hunger need

MU report finds county in top 23 most in-need counties in state of Mo. concerning hunger need

Atina RobertsMMI Reporter

The University of Missouri recently released the 2013 edition of The Missouri Hunger Atlas. The information paints a rather grim view of Randolph County.

The Atlas charts food insecurity and hunger on a county-by-county basis. A team from the University of Missouri put the Atlas together. Dr. Sandy Rikoon, Curators Distinguished Professor of Rural Sociology with the University of Missouri, is the lead for the research team that put such together.

Randolph County ranks in the top 23 (most in need) counties in the state concerning hunger needs, and according to the Atlas, the county is struggling to meet those needs.

Close to 65 percent of Randolph County citizens qualify for the Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC), which is almost 15 percent higher than state average. Almost a quarter of the county's population qualifies for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/Food Stamps).

Randolph County is not alone, Rikoon explains:

"Rural counties often have more need for a number of reasons. I would say the driving force is low household income and higher levels of poverty in rural areas. We also find many household with limited resources are finding it difficult to meet all other needs (housing, utilities, medical and health care, gasoline, etc.) and still have sufficient funds left over for food.

"In Missouri, 2.3 percent of the population ten years ago was classified as food insecure with hunger," Rikoon said. "Over the past three years, it's nearly tripled to 6.7 percent of households. One alarming dimension of this trend is that not only are more Missourians concerned about having sufficient food, but a higher percentage of these folks are unable to satisfy household needs through existing public and private sector programs."

Rikoon went on to say that "the percent of Missouri's population that is food insecure has grown from an average of 8.6 percent during the 1999-2001 period to 16 percent over the years 2009-2011. No other state has seen their percentage increase more than seven percent over this time."

According to Dr. Sandy Rikoon, "Randolph County is among those counties that rank high or very high in terms of need, and low or very low in terms of how well they are meeting that need compared to other counties of the state."

The Atlas notes than more than 1.4 billion dollars was spent in Missouri in 2012 to help offset the cost of food for families in need. That amount, according to Rikoon, does not come close to satisfying the need in Missouri.

"While the amount of assistance is significant, it only covers about 40 percent of the costs of food insecurity," he said. "A few years ago, the Center for American Progress estimated an annual cost of $3.6 billion to Missouri due to the combination of lost economic productivity, more expensive public education because of the rising costs of poor education outcomes, avoidable health care costs and the cost of charity to keep families fed."

Dr. Rikoon started the Atlas project in 2005, and this is the third edition. The project was started when Rikoon noticed that the data on hunger needs was not something that was actually collected. While some of the information was gathered by various sources, there was nowhere that the depth of information needed was tabulated. Rikoon started the process with the first release of the Hunger Atlas in 2008, and aims to release a new edition every two to three years.